Why the Alien Robots Will Never Win

Garlic parmesan vinaigrette.  Kalamata olives.  Feta cheese.  Summer sausage.  Fresh cucumber.  Adorably formal bow-tie pasta.

Melted monterey jack cheese, smothered over a thin, grilled chicken breast, set gently on a small toasted bun, so slight in diameter it can barely contain all of the goodness.

This is why the alien robots will never win.  As long as cooking and eating are art forms, we have nothing to worry about.  Food, and really, I mean our need for food, reminds us that we are human.  That we cannot be sustained by anything less than something of actual caloric value.  Sure, people have found ways to put caloric value into bland, tasteless, utilitarian formats.  But what they can't do is take away our physical reaction to good food.  Even in my current state of work-sleep-eat-whatever-won't-give-me-heartburn-and-can-fit-in-an-ikea-tupperware, I know what good food is.  I can still taste the spaghetti I had in Florence last May, the croissants I ate in Paris, my mom's homemade ice cream from the summer I was 10.  All of those food memories are stored up in me.  And even for those who don't have wonderful food memories, they generally hop on the bandwagon when they first taste something the rest of us know to be fantastic.  Someone I went to college with once said by way of a before-meal prayer, "Jesus is God's love made visible.  Food is God's love made edible."  As long as this strangely sacred act of eating is around, I think we're safe from invading alien robots.  Of course, we have the freedom to abuse our eating privileges, and we do so all the time, sometimes to the point of making it difficult to distinguish us from those intergalactic invaders.  But an alien robot will never sit up a little straighter at the scent of sauteed garlic.  Their mouths will never water at the sight of a good, strong cheese.  Chocolate cake has no moral value to them.  This is what distinguishes us from the mindless, robotic versions of ourselves that our work schedules and desire to consume so often make us:  the ability to taste and see the goodness of our God in the world around us.  As long as we can keep eating (and I mean really eating- not just calorie consuming),  I think we'll be safe from even ourselves.